Secular processes are one of the reasons of the contemporary cultural crisis. They influence many aspects of individual and social life which is reflected in the sphere of art. Artistic activity is not only a picture of human existence, but also an expression of longing and desire for what exceeds wordliness. Great masterpieces, in spite of being created many centuries ago, confirm this, as they do not stop to delight us because their creators were inspired by the beauty of Christian faith. The contemporary depar-ture from God takes different forms – from securalizatiom which radically denies the supernatural reality to desecularization with its “new spirituality”, being quite often an indefinite spiritualism in the New Age style. In this perspective, sacred art, instead of surrendering to the secularization pressure, should find its new identity as an im-portant element of the new evangelization. Art as via pulchritudinis is to continue to fulfill its evangelizing mission for modern man who so often loses his way to God. It will then become for us a meaning full of hope which human life receives from the mystery of Christ’s redeeming love.

In this paper, the question of religious potential of contemporary art is posed only in relation to visual arts, which contain the concept of religious art. The difficulty in answering it stems from the lack of consensus on the relevant criteria for determining if a given work of art is a religious one. These criteria might include the author’s faith and the religious topic, the liturgical or devotional function, as well as a style that is capable of expressing the sacred. The issue of how these criteria function in contemporary art cannot be answered without taking a closer look at two moments essential for the development of religious art. The first was the Renaissance, when the aesthetic values of a work began to give way to theological determinants. The second was the nineteenth century with its attempts to create a new canon of religious art. Both of these critical moments in the development of sacred art show that the religious potential of art depends on the concomitance of many factors. The main problem is finding a new form, a new style able to express the sacred and engage in dialogue with contemporary art as once the icon would.

This article is a tribute to the work of Stanisław Jarocki, Polish painter and activist who, after settling down in Wilno in 1898, over the following fifteen years wrote multiple articles about the religious heritage of that city and the historical Samogitia (Žemaitija) for the highly respected Warsaw weekly Tygodnik Ilustrowany. His texts with original illustrations are discussed in the historical and artistic contexts of the turn of the 20th century.